Yet again, a small faction of wealthy trophy hunters is pressuring your elected officials to allow the importation of threatened polar bear trophies from Canada. They also want to open millions of acres of public lands to sport hunting and commercial trapping, without evaluating possible implications on animals, habitat and Americans who enjoy our nation’s wild spaces. They are also fighting to keep pumping tons of toxic lead ammunition into the environment, poisoning the land and wildlife, even when non-lead ammo is readily available. At the same time our Endangered Species Act is being gutted away to favor the very same Trophy Hunters. WE NEED TO FIGHT AGAINST (the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act of 2015 and the S.405 – Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2015)

Here’s an overview of the proposed bill. OUTRAGEOUS!!!! Do you see where they are taking away the ability to list Elephants as “ENDANGERED”, so that they can import their animal kills.

The SHARE ACT — Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act- and its Senate companion, the Bipartisan Sportsmen Act of 2015, is little more than a SPECIAL INTEREST bill. The legislation does little to benefit rank-and-file hunters. What we have here is a special interest bill masquerading as a measure to aid the common hunter.

41 trophy hunters are given special attention in the bill. These 41 hunters would be allowed to import their slaughtered polar bears into the United States from Northern Canada. Having been denied by Congress in 2012, when Senator Young took on their fight, they now are the topic of yet another bill. What have these uber-wealthy hunters done to lobby such favor with our members of Congress? The slaughtered Polar Bears contributed to the endangerment of the species. Why are we rewarding these 41 special men?

The legislation will open up millions of acres of public land to trophy hunters and trappers. While California has banned the trapping of bobcats, we now see legislation that seeks to make wider the practice of this barbarity. Millions of animals, including pets, are killed in leg traps every year. Please say “no!” to this barbarity!

Even more perplexing is the language included in the SHARE Act that would prevent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services from adopting rules to restrict the illegal ivory trade into the U.S. WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HUNTING AND WHY IS IT EVEN IN THIS BILL? Why are members of Congress aiding the AK-47 wielding poachers that saw off the faces of elephants?! Anyone’s guess…

Additionally, and most distressingly, the House Bill seeks to take away regulatory authority from the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture to protect the public and wildlife from TOXIC LEAD AMMUNITION.

The sponsor of the SHARE ACT, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska should be hanging her head in shame! The co-sponsors of this bill might want to reconsider their stance.

The House has already passed the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act of 2013. Now there is Senate bill 1996, and a package of seven companion bills, all of which would tragically hurt wildlife and take away the rights of the majority of Americans who don’t hunt, trap, or fish.

Senate bill 1996 and its seven companion bills, are extremely bad for wildlife and the non-hunting public alike. The goal of this package of bills, collectively called SHARE (Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreation Act), is to further “sportsmen’s” interests by opening more federal land to hunting, fishing, and trapping, allowing the importation of polar bear “trophies” from Canada, and allowing hunting in National Parks.

If enacted, these bills would:

Mandate a free-for-all of trappers/hunters/fishermen/recreational shooters on 700 million acres of National Forests and Bureau of Land Management land (BLM) – federal public land that belongs to YOU. Trapping is implicit and defined as a subtype of hunting and as such, trapping is green-lighted without being mentioned again. This is analogous to the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 by Don Young (R-AK), which turned National Wildlife Refuges System from sanctuaries into playgrounds for hunters, anglers, and trappers.

Make hunting, fishing, and trapping a “priority public use” of federal lands.National Forests and BLM land are hunted, trapped, and fished already. Many have public shooting ranges. The bills would go even further by placing one class of visitors above the majority of recreationists on federal public lands who don’t hunt, trap, or fish. The bills would be a menace to public safety and interfere with other visitors’ quiet, peaceful enjoyment of nature.

Get hunters into National Parks through a backdoor. While hunting is prohibited in National Parks, “skilled volunteers” (read: hunters) would be allowed in the killing (culling) of wildlife populations on federal lands.

Allow polar bear “trophies” from Canada be imported into the US. That would stimulate hunting of this imperiled species.

Bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating lead in ammunition and fishing sinkers. Lead is a neurotoxin which we’ve eliminated from gasoline, paint, and toys. But 3,000 tons of lead shot and bullets per year are fired into the wild and 4,000 tons per year from fishing tackle is lost in ponds and streams. Many birds of prey ingest spent lead fragments when feeding on animals that were shot and are themselves killed.

The endangered Species Act of 1973 will be gutted favoring Wealthy Big Game Trophy Hunters

PLEASE do NOT allow these morally repugnant misguided pieces of legislation to see the light of day. Once enacted Cecil’s Law will be powerless and our Endangered Species Act, worthless…

Please, if you don’t already know who they are and how to get in touch with them, find your federal legislators here

List of Senators Against the S.H.A.R.E. Act, sorted by state: Please make a brief, polite phone call today to your Senators and urge them to vote against (the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act of 2015 and the S.405 – Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2015), and protect our Natural Heritage.